The Artist
by Riaru Nijunana
Summary: It wasn't my intention to bring myself to this world but that just so happened to be the case. My four years of studying abroad as a foreign student had all gone to hell when I walked into the wrong room. Who knew that that room kept closure to a portal that led to another world? Not me. Which is why I walked into it looking for a broom after 'accidentally' breaking a glass cup.
1. Chapter 1

Konoha was exactly how I'd imagined it to be, very underwhelming. I never found any interest in a village surrounded by trees. Since the five years I've spent in this virtual world now turning into a reality, I've travelled to the four nations and gathered whatever I could, saving Konoha for last for, well, very good reasons. One was that I didn't want to be like every other idiot who gets trapped in a silly fan fiction and somehow disrupts an entire story line. And two, well, I honestly just didn't want to come through. Thinking about those two reasons, I probably should've made a third.. fourth.. and fifth one to deter me from ever thinking of trying to come here because as it is, I couldn't quite escape the eyes of two cloaked figures that looked rather menacing in those black and red dresses.

"Well miss," Kisame started, "You look rather pale, why not have some tea with us."

I'm not going to lie and say I planned this whole trip out, I just made sure that I'd arrive in Konoha during an inconsequential time, and it turns out that I suck at planning. I really do.

I laughed off the suggestion and waved my hands in a shooing motion.

"I don't really have money for that kind of service"

I quickly darted in the other direction, stopping at a local shop to grab a drink. I actually was kind of thirsty and rather out of breath. I walked in the shop and laid down my bag of goodies to order myself some tea. I began to wonder then why I wasn't so stressed out at what exactly just happened. It was probably because of the five year experience of seeing stranger shit, I really did think I was desensitized to it all by now. Thinking about it, I never felt the need to panic when I first got here. Instead I looked at it as an opportunity to do what I always wanted to do, which was travel around, draw cool things, and sleep whenever I wanted to. Things I knew I probably would've never achieved going through a four year process that would at most only guarantee a job as a cashier.. maybe not even that really.

I sighed.

"Besides.. The views here are amazing.."

The tea was brought to me a few minutes later and I set it aside to place all my arts and crafts on a table that should've sat four but I took the whole thing, saving only little space for my cup of tea; the owner didn't seem to mind as business apparently ran very slow and I looked to be the only customer for the day.

"What you got there?" The owner asked, whilst cleaning a mug, wanting only to spark a conversation to pass the time.

I didn't mind.

It always got lonely too quick for me.

"Just a bunch of paintings and stuff I bought and made"

The owner nodded, "From around here?"

I shook my head, "I haven't gotten to getting a good vantage point to paint this place yet"

The owner seemed a bit surprised at that, "Oh a painter are you? You must be new here? Where'd you come from and how many.."

The questions seeped through faster than I could answer them and I began to blush as the questions turned into compliments as the man admired my work from not too far away. The counter wasn't more than a few seats apart from where I was sitting so he got a good enough look at what I had set out on the table.

Before the man could continue on, he turned away and greeted some other customers with just as much exuberance as when he was talking about my arts.

"Come in come in! What can I get for you two!"

I turned to look at the newcomers because I was just rude like that.

"A place to sit" Kisame answered back.

I was an absolute idiot.

—

The woman that stood before them didn't look to be anywhere past her mid-twenties and by the way she dressed, both Kisame and Itachi knew she wasn't from around here.

Her hair was short, in a brown bobbed mess, stood around the same height as Itachi but slightly shorter. All meaning she was dwarfed by Kisame's physique. Her attire was composed of a light pink one piece dress that looked to resemble a kimono combined with a pair of very rough looking boots.. topped with a strange apparel on her head. Together with the bag she had on her back, they were all indications that she was a traveler, a somewhat unassuming looking traveler.

Otherwise a safe encounter.

Which is why Kisame offered her to join them for some tea but she ran away with, well, above-civilian-like speed.

"This is what I get for trying to be nice" Kisame said, fairly irritated it seemed.

"Why'd you bother?" Itachi asked, "Knowing what kind of reaction you'd get.."

Kisame looked at Itachi with what looked like hurt on his face.

"C'mon.." Itachi began, "Let's just go get some tea.."

The two began their walk in silence and arrived at a shabby looking tea-shop. It was actually Itachi's favorite place.

Both of them heard animated chatter coming from inside and as they lifted the blinds from the shop, they were greeted with that same animated sounding chatter.

"Come in! Come in! What can I get for you two!"

Kisame looked around noticing there was only a single table with benches lining on either side but it was preoccupied by a smaller lady.

"A place to sit" he answered.

At that moment the smaller lady looked behind and Kisame raised his brow at the familiarity that happened only a few minutes ago.

"Ah" the smaller lady sounded.


	2. Chapter 2

"Ah"

That was all I could muster up at the moment and seeing as how I wasn't going to escape whatever situation I had just gotten myself into, I just let it be.

So here I was, sitting across two infamous rogue ninjas that might just bring down the entire village..

I say 'might' because this was probably the farthest I got into the series and although I knew the ending, I wasn't quite sure how it got there. I was only hoping that the slight addition to their company wouldn't change anything.

"If you didn't want to have tea with us you could've just said so" Kisame said with cup in hand, ready to sip from it. They had situated themselves rather comfortably and it seemed so out of place.

I raised my hands in a defensive stance, "It's nothing like that! It was just that.."

With the two pairs of eyes staring at me ever so intently I was wondering then, what I should say.

"Never mind that!" Yes, simply deflect the question altogether is the right course of action.

"Let me pay for your guys' meal!"

I wasn't that familiar to how people reacted to essentially being treated to a meal but just being able to logically process it all, there was no way a free meal could go wrong.

It didn't matter whether you massacred your family or murdered your own friends in cold blood, a free meal is a free meal at the end of the day, and no one can turn that down. Even the richest man would be delighted at the aspect of something free, or at least that's what I thought to be true.

"Well now," Kisame grinned with his own version of happiness, bringing himself up to peer down at his partner, "That doesn't sound too bad at all, ain't it Itachi?"

"A free meal is a free meal" Itachi didn't nod or give any emotion of confirmation but the sentence was apparently approval to the idea, no matter how bland it sounded.

Of course deep inside I was allowing myself some relief together with the slightest form of anger.. I escaped one world of buying things for other people and now I've put myself in a place where I need to buy things for other people in order to survive.. what kind of catch 22 was that?

"So anything we want?"

The question should not have filled me with more terror than the idea of dying but why the hell did it?

—

At first sight of the girl, Itachi for a brief moment believed her to be cute. But that moment was very brief, so brief in fact even he hadn't actually thought of it. No, it was so brief he wouldn't let himself remember it and as such the thought was lumped together with all the other thoughts he categorized as useless.. such as delight that it was a good day or really any emotion whatsoever. With that kind of system, Itachi knew he could make unbiased decisions, which is why he didn't stop Kisame from asking the girl out for tea.

Everything about her was just too non-threatening. Even though she appeared to be a foreigner, there was apparently such a thing as a civilian-esque aura. That was something she possessed.

"This is what I get for trying to be nice" Kisame said, definitely irritated by the looks of it.

"Why'd you bother?" Itachi asked, "Knowing what kind of reaction you'd get.."

Whether Kisame had gotten hurt from his speech didn't matter to Itachi.. He only wanted to get some tea.

"C'mon" he said, "Let's just go get some tea."

He walked in complete silence while it was obvious Kisame's day had more or less took a turn for the worst.

Upon coming face to face with his old favorite tea house, Kisame gave him a blank stare, probably hoping to illicit a reaction which he sadly did not get.

From the inside, Itachi heard animated chatter and as Kisame lifted the blinds, he recognized the small woman before them who had taken up the whole table.

—

AN: I'm not quite sure where I'm going with this story so hopefully you guys can give me an idea. I'm just testing out which POV works best and I feel like it might be the first person POV


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